The present invention relates generally to compositions prepared by polymerizing vinyl neo C9-C13 carboxylic acid esters. Such compositions include latex compositions that are formed by polymerizing vinyl neo C9-C13 carboxylic acid esters with ethylenically unsaturated comoners such as acrylic acid esters and vinyl acetate. The compositions of the present invention are particularly suitable for use in applications such as architectural (both interior and exterior), direct-to-metal and marine coatings and transportation maintenance applications.
For exterior coatings, the North American market has been built predominately around all acrylic copolymer systems, typically butyl acrylate/methyl methacrylate systems (BA/MMA systems). Such all acrylic copolymer systems exhibit superior properties such as water resistance and resistance to alkali hydrolysis.
As a way of reducing the cost of an exterior paint, however, these all acrylic copolymer systems are often blended with vinyl acrylic copolymer systems, typically vinyl acetate/butyl acrylate systems (VA/BA systems), to produce a VA/BA+BA/MMA system. As a lower cost alternative to all acrylic copolymer systems for exterior paints, vinyl acetate/butyl acrylate/vinyl ester systems (VA/BA/VE systems) are also known to be used in the North American market. However, these lower cost systems, i.e., VA/BA+BA/MMA systems and VA/BA/VE systems, lack properties such as resistance to alkali hydrolysis, which is a highly desirable property for exterior paints. Therefore, there is a desire to develop a lower cost system with improved performance.
The North American interior coating market has been built predominately around vinyl acrylic systems, typically vinyl acetate/butyl acrylate systems (VA/BA systems). In addition to vinyl acrylic systems, vinyl acetate/vinyl ester systems (VA/VE systems) are known to be used in the European interior coating market. However, VA/BA systems and VA/VE systems that are currently available can be improved in the area of scrub and stain resistance, performance properties that are required for interior paints. Therefore, it is desirable to improve current VA/BA and VA/VE systems to obtain better performance such as scrub and stain resistance for interior coatings.
Finally, in the direct to metal coating market, all acrylic systems such as BA/MMA systems and styrene acrylic systems are used. These systems however do not perform well in the area of corrosion resistance. Therefore, there is a need to find alternate systems that perform well in this area.
An object of the present invention is to modify a vinyl acrylic system to improve performance properties of exterior paints. A second object of the present invention is to modify a vinyl acetate system to improve performance properties of interior paints and to use such a modified vinyl acetate system as a blended component with an all acrylic system for use in exterior paints. Finally, a third object of the present invention is to modify all acrylic systems to improve performance properties for direct to metal coatings.
The present invention is directed to a polymer prepared by polymerizing a multi-isomer mixture of vinyl neo C9-C13 carboxylic acid esters containing at least 25 wt % vinyl neo C12 carboxylic acid ester, wherein the vinyl neo C9-C13 carboxylic acid is represented by the formula: 
wherein R1, R2 and R3 are independently hydrocarbyl groups each having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, R1 R2 R3 Cxe2x80x2xe2x80x94 has a neo structure about the Cxe2x80x2 atom, and R1+R2+R3=7 to 11; and the vinyl neo C12 carboxylic acid ester is represent by the same formula where R1+R2+R3=10.
The present invention also provides many additional advantages that shall become apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiments below.